Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.


The Unohana Manor was beginning the preparations for its night guard. Their seventh consecutive day on high alert as they awaited for Shin's return with the missing orphan and their seventh consecutive day guarding against the invading horrors of the night. Hollows of all types and sizes, most of which were merely incapacitated and examined by Rei herself, would come in the shadows of the dark night to take away the weaker souls for food. It had gotten so bad that even Rei herself had to raise her sword and fight more than once, and all of this had been linked to one thing: Shin. His presence and his energy, particularly the energy from his first awakening, had drawn an abundance of Hollows to the manor.

It was Death that these monsters craved. That utter blackness, the anti-chromatic veil that hovered around Shin like a protective cloud in the sky, it was attractive to the monsters from beyond. They wanted to see that darkness for themselves and came in throes and legions to find it, more often than not being led by an evolved Adjuchas who carried with him some higher form of weaponry like a club or a crudely fashioned sword. All this information and research was delightful for Rei to come by but the injures grew each night. It wouldn't be long until an attack left more than just wounds in the guards...

"My lady" Telly said as she slid in on her feet, the extreme rush of panic overcoming her. "There is still no sign of Shin Kenpachi or his traveling companions! We must gather up another guard force for the night..."

"Very well" Rei somberly obliged. She stood up and grasped the handle of her sword with a dramatic clacking of the blade. Telly looked up and shot to her feet, ready to protest, but the eyes of her lady were too far determined to be fought with. "I shall take guard again tonight." Her resolve was palpable.

"But my lady" Telly began "you've been missing too much sleep. It isn't healthy at all! Please reconsider, stay in bed, research the specimens we have, but don't fight! We beg you!"

"Telly" Rei softly began, freezing the girl with her kindness. "You should get some rest, too. You've been exerting yourself inordinately during your guard."

"...yes my lady" Telly said hypnotically. Rei's kindness, her gentle motherly voice, was something that couldn't be fought. Telly just let her leave for the front gate, no more arguments to make, and then hung her head in defeat as she went through the halls. She met up with Natsumo halfway to her quarters and ran her head softly into her chest. Natsumo naturally recoiled, especially because Telly was still walking into her, and pushed her away.

"What's wrong with you!?" Natsumo demanded, holding her shoulders. Telly made a few mock sobs and looked up with her mouth agape in a nervous smile and her eyes pressed and sealed with tears.

"Lady Unohana...scares me..." she admitted.

"Is that all?" Natsumo demanded with a disgusted look. She started to shake Telly violently, her voice vibrating in time with the tremors. "You goofy girl! You don't stand up to her! What kind of stupid thoughts go on in that yellow head of yours!?" Their quarrel was merely incidental. The true conflict would come as the sun set. A gathering of guards, men who worked specifically for such a thing, had gathered to defend all the walls and halls of the manor from whatever arcane manner of attack came their way. Rei stood dead center, watching over the locked gates that had been marred by the desperate claw marks and signs of struggle that had led to the injuries and fights over the past few nights.

Rei's face had that same gentle air about it as it always did, but it still seemed somber. Knowing how merciless these Hollows were becoming, she felt that it was only a matter of time before she saw someone be unjustly devoured. The guards around her, all of them in some miniscule form of uniform to signify their allegiance, stood impatiently waiting for the battle to start. Not mercenaries but true soldiers abandoned by their country, whether it didn't need them or whether they country had already fallen. These men made their home here and it was a home they would defend.

"Hey" one man, a bandage wrapped around his head and crossing over the bridge of his nose, began. "I just thought of something."

"What?" the man he spoke to, one who wore gauze as a bandanna, replied in annoyance.

"What if Shin died out there?" he asked. "You know, it's a pretty dangerous place to be carrying a kid. Maybe he didn't make it back."

"Then we wouldn't have these Hollow problems, would we?" the soldier snapped. "That guy's the cause of all this, and as troublesome as it is, I gotta say it's nice to be fighting again."

"But you could die!" a woman with her neck wrapped in a pure-white cotton choker exclaimed. "What kind of man is joyful over potentially dying!?"

"A real man!" the soldier proclaimed. "I live to fight and fight to survive, but if I die in battle I'll be happy knowing that there's something powerful to challenge the stronger warriors out there! My death will just help others to become strong!"

"That's a very depressing thought" the man said.

"It's how warrior like me think" the soldier said, tapping his blade on his shoulder. "That's how Shin and Hoji think. Those guys are the strongest warriors I've ever met. If they died...and I get to fight their killer...man, that'd be awesome!" He had startled the girl with his excitement over dying but the man had retreated in fear to another side of the guard line. Rei's stare stayed fixed on the gates. The sun cast an orange blanket across the sky splotched with the small, dirty-gray clouds here and there that all drifted into the encroaching blackness.

A monster howled somewhere in the distance, a beastly and hollow scream of battle. It was accompanied by many others, an army of terrible demons from worlds and places unknown. The Hollows readied themselves to attack. Rei drew out her sword and held it in lazily at her side while the rest of the guards prepared themselves as best they could with as much enthusiasm and protectionism as they could muster. The battle would begin again tonight, just as it had the night before.


Their panting voices and hissing huffs filled the voided forest with an animistic intensity. The leaves all shook on their branches, quivering in fear as the monsters rushed through the trees on their hands and feet. Masked beasts with glaring eyes and gnashing, flat teeth, bony white skin and the occasional short row of horns arcing across their backs. Monsters all, hungry for strength and souls. They all encroached upon the same point, the hallowed Hollow proof Unohana manor where so many Hollows had already gone to die.

"Kill the head bitch!" one Hollow shouted to his comrades. "If she dies the rest will give up!"

"We'll eat her alive!" another growled.

GAOOOOOOONH!!!!! The Hollow army cried, a fierce shriek of battle that resonated above the forest trees and far across the rolling hills that hid the mansion. Finally, after so much running, they found their way onto a path carved by the spiritual denizens of the realm and began their inhuman sprinting toward their objective, the front gates.

"Smash them down!" a Hollow commanded. Without hesitation the Hollows that charged forward picked up their speed and smashed their shoulders into the gate. It did not fall, but the weak creaking of the aged wood was a sign that it had given significant way to their force. Another batch of Hollows made a dash for the gate as the first parted to make way for them. These Hollows were the true chargers, all of them huge with thick, brutish masks, all of them elite in sheer strength. They blasted through the gate, sending shards of wooden shrapnel flying at the shinigami who stood in their way. Rei only glared at them sadly, lives that were unfortunately due to end soon.

"ATTACK!!!" A commanding shinigami called. The rest of the guards drew their swords that weren't already drawn and dashed forward in a defensive force. The Hollow's fought as best they could against the overwhelming odds, swinging their heavy and hefty arms to and fro, trying to catch a tiny shinigami with their attacks. The shinigami of the Unohana manor were quick and nimble. They weren't the kind to be hit by such slow attacks. They were veterans! The one enthusiastic, war-faced soldier with the bandana of bandages went dashing past the line of bulky Hollows and reached the back ranks of the weaker, reserve Hollows.

"HA!" he shouted, slicing one's head in half. The arms of the others, those close by the one he just ended, all came down swiftly to deliver attempted blows to his head. He brought his sword up, clutched tightly in both hands, and blocked them all. A cloud of greedy hands hovered just over his head. He held them there while two stomping feet neared his position. He grunted and tried to push them off but they were intent on keeping him in his place.

"What a brash move" a Hollow's voice said. He had heard few Hollow voices before, this man, but he knew this one was different from others. This was the voice of some ghostly woman. He tried to look past the angry, scathing masks of the beasts around him, all of them wide in the jaw and thin in the scalp, but he could only stand to feel her presence, a punishing pressure. "So young...a valiant soul, a misguided soul. A warrior in his prime. I wonder what a soul like yours tastes like...?"

The soldier was getting frustrated with his own disability, so he let the Hollows press him down and he slipped out form under them, sliding between the bow-legged stance of one and decapitating it just before making a swift retreat. He turned to see the leading, hungry Hollow behind him, but when he tried he was stunned by a shocking wave of pure pressure and a Hollow wielding an ax for a hand came up to him with its naturally smiling mask.

"Seems we've got an excited one" the Hollow lowed. The soldier became full of panic and fear. He knew his head was lost.

That's it, I guess he thought in his final moments. I'm dead. I've let Unohana down...myself down. I'm nothing but a weakling...damn. Shin Kenpachi wouldn't be in this kind of state at all... Just as he had made term with his own weakness, just as he accepted death, death seemed to reject him and forced him to live. The pressure was relieved of him and a loud, powerful thud was heard as the huge ax-armed Hollow fell to the ground, clutching the bleeding stub of an arm that used to bear a bladed ax. Rei Unohana stood above the soldier and gave him a hand to rise up to his feet. He accepted it and rose before her, grateful yet angry at his own incompetence.

"Forgive me, madam" he said with a bow. "I rushed ahead against orders...but the leader, I think I've found her."

"I see" Rei said, looking beyond him. She began walking, ignoring the soldier as he continued pouring his heart out.

"I'm sorry!" he continued. "I thought I could handle it, but I could only kill two Hollows! And I know how much you resent us killing them, but it was all in self-defense. There were ten or more of them trying to kill me at once, and I had to defend myself somehow, so I had to kill them! They weren't even injured. It was an unfair fight!!!" It was now that he looked up and then around to his sides to acknowledge that Rei was no longer holding him to the obligation of showing his honor. Then he looked over his shoulder and saw her measuring the power of the Hollow leader down the path with her steely nerve and calm eyes.

"So" Rei began, "an Adjuchas class Hollow. I haven't seen one of you in quite a long while."

"Oh?" the female Hollow hummed. It was a tall and thin Hollow with an unmistakably feminine form with a coat of white scales running all down its body to its three-clawed feet. She resembled, mostly, a lizard with her body and form and even had a tail that fanned out with a fin running from its tip to her masked head. Her mask was pointed out with a sharp snout and her jaws were filled with razor-sharp teeth and sharply angled eye holes that glowed with a ravenous shade of red. Her nostrils were slits in the skull and many bony horns frilled out from her forehead to create a sort of crown. "I don't believe we've met yet, deary. I am Radeorul Sinesta, one of the greater Hollows in charge of the Sinesta forces."

"Sinesta?" Rei asked politely. "Why, is that something like a family name? I didn't think Hollows could have children."

"It is a nest" she explained. "A place where powerful Hollows like myself congregate to form a stronger alliance and fight against the barbaric forces that hunt down other Hollows for their own amusement or growth. We are a mutual group of Hollows who exist so that we may become stronger together."

"Why yes" Rei began. "We have things like that here too. We have hundreds of thousands of shinigami all working towards one goal in unity, and there are many groups like that all fighting one another for supremacy. There are also groups, like mine, who unite to protect those who can no longer fight in such wars, and those who have lost the people closest to them in the war. I suppose that is what my 'nest' is for, a refuge for the weakest people that don't wish to fight."

"Then this shall be easy for me" Radeorul said. She revealed her fingers, long and thin, and then let slide through their tips the steely razor blades that dwelt just under her scaly skin. Five long, sharp blades for slicing, six thick clawed toes for rending, a mouth full of tiny daggers for gnashing and ripping and tearing apart. A true monster, a queen of monsters, if there was one to be had. Rei took a solemn face and grasped lightly the hilt of her blade, ready to regretfully spill unworthy blood.


The shinigami guards still held strong back at the front gate. The Hollows continued their uncoordinated attacks on the guards with an impatient aggression. Most of the front-line bulky Hollows had been eliminated, leaving way for the smaller and more agile Hollows to charge in and intercept the shinigami, thus allowing the larger Hollows the freedom of movement that had been previously restricted. It was a tied battle for a short amount of time. Then, from outside the gate,m carrying a huge makeshift weapon, came that soldier once more. He held over his shoulder the ax arm of the Hollow that nearly killed him just before lady Rei came to his rescue, and he wielded it with a devious smile.

"MOVE IT! MOVE IT! MOVE IIIT!!!" he roared as he made his mad rush to his comrades. The choker-girl and the nose-bandaged man both disengaged their enemies and watched him charge in with total abandon for his life, an utterly grim descent from any order into a chaotic power they couldn't comprehend. He grabbed the ax arm by the exposed bone, then by the hilt of his sword which he stabbed into it for a better grip, and swung hard with a powerful grunt. The Hollows he hit froze as he returned to the ground, tearing up the dirt and dust as his slid on his heavy feet to a stop.

The Hollows he defeated were sliced apart with nasty, jagged remains fluttering and draining of blood in the breeze just before dissolving entirely into that strange blackness that all Hollows knew. The foolishly brave soldier stood back up and stared spinning his giant weapon around in circles above his head, preparing another series of attacks on the remaining hollows. The limber and athletic Hollows weren't as keen on simply dying as the larger, less mobile ones were, and went in too attack.

A shadow of dancing cloth appeared on the roof, hidden by the clouded moonlight. She drew her blade above her head and aimed with her hand down at the ground. A black-haired beauty with piercing, objective eyes. Natsumo with her sword, ready to release. She took out a slowly drawn breath and began to gather herself, her energies, for her release.

"Devour the night's shadows" she began in incantation. "Open your maw and swallow the world..." With the lines she spoke a mystic smoke picked up around her and each word made the sword push closer to her flat, aiming hand. The shinigami below began fighting a losing battle. They had no shikai, they couldn't keep up with the unrelenting force of the umpteen Hollows that came so viciously from every dark corner of the night. Even the brave warrior swinging the dismembered limb of one more powerful beast found himself on a path leading to defeat. "Engulf the wicked, smash them apart!" Her sword now sank into the back of her palm and fused with it, rippling out with a raw color of energy. "Snap! Hitonomi no WANI!!!"

An explosive release caught the attention of all under that night sky. Natsumo stood at its epicenter, her delicate, dark hair uncurling from its bun and blowing freely behind her head. She leaped form the roof to the ground at the gate and prepared to engage the startled, awing enemies with her weapon. Twin gauntlets, darkest gray with aqua blue stripes on both sides lined with sharp, studded black spikes. Her hands were free from the deadly-looking bracers themselves and coated in a layer of rough, dark-green scales. Her hair dangled before her eyes, just for a moment, then a Hollow died. It was torn apart, as if some great-mouthed beast descended and tore it piece from piece, and the only sign of a battle was Natsumo standing behind it, a tense chin and scowling lip, her arms both straight down and fiercely tense from her apparent action that went unseen in its glorious speed.

"Natsumo!" the girl shouted in admiration.

"It's mistress Natsumo!" the less manic man exclaimed. "She's come to save us!"

"Hmph" the warrior gruffed. He had missed the entire spectacle. He and Natsumo met eyes, she looking at him and the dusty remains of the Hollow he had just expertly vanquished as it dissipated behind him. "Show off. I bet if I had a sword I'd have already used it!" That tension was quickly forgotten as even more howling Hollows came up from beyond the gate, ready to attack, but not ready to die. Natsumo jumped up and drew her arm back for a punch. When she threw it, and it lander, the Hollow whom she had hit exploded into a cloud of blackness that quickly disappeared between the worlds.

"This is a destructive power" she said "that is like no other. Carrying the elemental forces of both Earth and Water, the gauntlets of pure destruction, Hitonomi no Wani!" She slid her feet back a bit, brought one arm across her chest, and then pointed with her index and middle finger over at a group of Hollows. Then she beckoned them with an arrogant grin and murderous eyes. Her wrath was unleashed!


Hitonomi no Wani: Bite of the Crocodile